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HEBER CITY, Utah (AP) -- Searchers on Tuesday located the wreckage of a twin-engine plane and the body of a pilot who crashed in the Uinta National Forest after reporting engine trouble.
The Cessna 310 flown by Dr. John C. Oakley, 60, a neurosurgeon from Billings, Mont., disappeared Monday afternoon.
Weather prevented a search Monday night in the rugged area east of Heber City, where at least a foot of snow fell during a spring storm.
The wreckage in a ravine east of Heber City was spotted from the air at noon, but it took until 4:30 p.m. to reach the site in the Uinta National Forest.
"The terrain here is so steep they couldn't get in with snowmobiles and so rough that helicopters couldn't land," Sheriff Ken Van Wagoner said.
Searchers snowshoed for about five miles to the wreckage, where Oakley's body was found.
The plane was en route from Billings to Cedar City when air traffic controllers lost contact with Oakley, who was flying in blizzard-conditions and reported engine trouble.
"The pilot reported a loss of pressure in the left engine," said Mike Fergus, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration in Renton, Wash.
The search Tuesday involved 50 people, three helicopters, about a half dozen plans and about two-dozen snowmobiles, sheriff's officers said.
Oakley was a neurosurgeon at Yellowstone Neurosurgical Associates and medical director of the Northern Rockies Regional Pain Center.
His expertise was internationally recognized, said Michelle Hood, chief executive officer of St. Vincent Healthcare.
"Dr. Oakley was one of those physicians who was not only a wonderful clinician, but he was also tremendously engaged with the hospital community as a whole," Hood said. "He was such an amazing man."
A prayer vigil for Oakley was set for 7 p.m. Wednesday at American Lutheran Church in Billings.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
